Frum Says Donors Forced Him Out

By GottaLaff

David Frum had the nerve-- the nerve!-- to say that the health care reform bill would be the Republicans' Waterloo. He also popped out with a little nugget about the GOP being run by Fox, not vice versa.

Of course that was stating the obvious. ClusterFox virtually owns the party, promotes the Tea Baggers, and has many GOP Congress members cowering.

Frum's abrupt termination from the American Enterprise Institute came after her wrote a CNN piece about said GOP Waterloo, as well as an appearance on MSNBC where he repeated the point.

In other words, a policy of no compromising, going the radical route, would lead to a bad outcome.

It sure did for him.

And for the party. The GOP has been undermined by the word No, by the open hostility to reason, and by subservience to a Tee Vee network that spews extreme views.

Of course, we've been saying this for years.

Here's what Frum says:

David Frum told Mike Allen last night that "he believes his axing from his $100,000-a-year 'resident scholar' gig at the conservative American Enterprise Institute was related to donor pressure following his viral blog post arguing Republicans had suffered a devastating, generational 'Waterloo' in their loss to President Obama on health reform."

Said Frum: "There's a lot about the story I don't really understand. But the core of the story is the kind of economic pressure that intellectual conservatives are under... the elite isn't leading anymore. It's trapped. Partly because of the desperate economic situation in the country, what were once the leading institutions of conservatism are constrained."

The party has boxed themselves into a corner, just as David Corn said last night on Countdown. All that groveling and catering to the far right is not good for more reasonable members, nor is it good for the country.

There needs to be real debate, honest opinion differences for a democracy to work properly. When party leaders shout "Armageddon!" and do nothing but stand against things, this is what happens.

Well, Frum can always write another book.

GOP Waterloo

By GottaLaff

The Waterloo's on the other foot:

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says Republicans bet that the health care reform bill would be President Obama's Waterloo -- "just as health care was Clinton's in 1994."

"Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton's 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure."

"This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none... We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat."

More like a Waterloo-loo.

Loo. Sers.

Video- Denouncing Hatred: Conservatives Appalled At Glenn Beck

Looks like the worm has turned and doesn't like how it's ass looks. Via Media Matters.

Sarah the Quitter's Legacy: Hypocrisy

By GottaLaff

"Beware of accepting govt. largesse... it doesn't come free." Hyp. O. Crite:

David Frum: "Sarah Palin's most notable achievement as governor of Alaska was to increase the payout from the state's energy tax take by $1200 per resident. Isn't it odd then that she would use her farewell address to warn against the danger of government handouts?"

Video- Wingers Coulter, Buchanan and Frum: Palin, "Bigger" Than Obama, or Quitter?

Even the wingers can't decide. I like the way Frum compared her to Michael Jackson.

(CBS) Is Sarah Palin still a star, or a fading quitter? What does the future hold for her?

If a three-way discussion among Republican pundits on "The Early Show Saturday Edition" is any indication, more of the same -- she'll remain as controversial and passion-provoking rod as ever.

Author and right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter, GOP strategist Bay Buchanan, and NewMajority.com founder and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum had at it over the question of whether Palin could be a viable presidential candidate at some point.

(snip)

Buchanan said Palin's quitting will tarnish her severely, Coulter claimed Palin is still so big she's even a bigger story than President Obama, and Frum cited the very discussion they were having as proof of how divisive Palin is, even in her own party.

Bush speechwriter compares Obama's recovery plan to Bush's Iraq

By GottaLaff

David Frum has the unmitigated gall to compare Bush's sick, sadistic war to Prez O's economic recovery package? Really?

An interesting argument from former Bush speechwriter David Frum:

"After 9/11, President Bush (supported by me, among others) argued that the right way to respond to a terrorist attack from Afghanistan was by overthrowing Saddam Hussein. We offered a complicated explanation for this roundabout response, and for a time the public accepted it. But as the war went wrong, and failed to deliver the promised results, our plan's credibility collapsed."

"Now the Democrats have placed themselves in a similar situation. They are offering an indirect answer to an immediate question."

Hmm. This one's a real brain teaser. Let me put on my Official Liberal Thinking Cap, made from hemp, and see if I can figure it all out.

Iraq invasion: Killed millions of innocent people. Fraudulent. Congress never voted to approve. Destroyed lives. Intentionally blew people and places to smithereens. Rebuilding efforts were half-hearted, designed to put money in the pockets of slimy contractors who had ties to BushCo. Because of it-- disaster. Key words: War, botched, failure, violate, weaken, attack, death, destruction, devastation, chaos, expensive, unnecessary, wrong.

Obama recovery package: Saves American lives. Saves American jobs. Legal. Urgent. Congress voted to approve. Intentionally improves American quality of life. Rebuilding and construction are major components. Without it-- disaster. Key words: Recovery, help, aid, repair, rebuild, improve, reconstruction, vital, solution, revive, mandatory, resuscitate.

One more thought: Without Bush's dirty, costly, endless war/occupation, much of this dire economic crisis could have been avoided.

Palin's Pricey Duds Sit in RNC Trash Bags: Report

Unsubstantiated report right now, but if true, par for the course.

The tens of thousands of dollars worth of outfits bought for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) during the presidential campaign have yet to be donated to president as promised, according to a report.

Nearly $180,000 in clothing bought for the governor remains "stuffed in trash bags" at the Republican National Committee's (RNC) headquarters in Washington, according to a report by the conservative website NewMajority.com.

The clothes had become a campaign issue during Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential bid, prompting Palin, his vice presidential nominee, to promise to donate the clothes to charity, and not keep for personal use.

"The story is completely inaccurate, and does not merit further response," said an RNC official, who refused to elaborate or say whether or not the RNC still had possession of the clothes

Added- Oliver notes that New Majority is run by ex Bush 43 speechwriter David Frum.

Quote-O'-The-Moment: Gramm-pa McCain is taking the whole party down edition

By GottaLaff

Oof! Right to the gut:

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum: "There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him... I could pile up the poll numbers here, but frankly... it's too depressing. You have to go back to the Watergate era to see numbers quite so horrible for the GOP."

November 5th won't be easy for Grammps.

Ex-Bushie David Frum just conceded the election to Obama, Bay Buchanan came close

By GottaLaff

On Larry King Live just now, Republican, ex-speech writer for Bush just said the election was lost for Gramm-pa, and Bay Buchanan struggled to deny the truth of Frum's statement. Frum went on to say his party should concentrate on the Congressional races.

Susan Eisenhower, Dwight Eisenhower's granddaughter, had no trouble supporting Obama. She endorsed him back in February:


UPDATE: Larry just nailed Grammps for breaking his promise and not appearing on his show... again. He extended the invitation... again.

Rachel Maddow Smacks David Frum

I was super surprised that Frum would go on the show.

The vanishing Republican voter

By GottaLaff

How's that inequality working for you and your 1987105 houses, J Sid?

In a must-read New York Times Magazine piece, former Bush speechwriter David Frum sounds the sirens for the Republican party.

"My fellow conservatives and Republicans have tended not to worry very much about the widening of income inequalities. As long as there exists equality of opportunity -- as long as everybody's income is rising -- who cares if some people get rich faster than others? Societies that try too hard to enforce equality deny important freedoms and inhibit wealth-creating enterprise. Individuals who worry overmuch about inequality can succumb to life-distorting envy and resentment."

"All true! But something else is true, too: As America becomes more unequal, it also becomes less Republican. The trends we have dismissed are ending by devouring us."

Obama, as usual, is in touch with the American people. McCain/Palin, on the other hand, are not. They seem to have failed to notice this:

As long as all Americans were becoming better off, few cared that some Americans were becoming better off than others. But since 2000, something has changed. Incomes at the middle have ceased to rise. The mood of the country has soured. Conservatives who disregard the mood of unease may forfeit their power to defend the more open and productive American economy they did so much to build. [...]

With wealth comes diversity — and what is inequality but diversity in monetary form?

The Big Question:

When asked, “Are you better off than you were five years ago?” only 41 percent of middle-class Americans say yes, the worst result since pollsters started asking the question half a century ago.

It’s this pervasive economic unease that is capsizing the Republican Party, even as Americans have arrived in recent months at a somewhat more optimistic assessment of the progress of the Iraq war.

Remember-- Republicans create their own reality:

IN SHORT, the trend to inequality is real, it is large and it is transforming American society and the American electoral map. Yet the conservative response to this trend verges somewhere between the obsolete and the irrelevant.

Conservatives need to stop denying reality. The stagnation of the incomes of middle-class Americans is a fact. And only by acknowledging facts can we respond effectively to the genuine difficulties of voters in the middle.

And then there's the trust factor:

Republicans have been badly hurt in upper America by the collapse of their onetime reputation for integrity and competence. Upper Americans live in a world in which things work. The packages arrive overnight. The car doors clink seamlessly shut. The prevailing Republican view — “of course government always fails, what do you expect it to do?” — is not what this slice of America expects to hear from the people asking to be entrusted with the government.

Finally, Frum's advice:

Equality in itself never can be or should be a conservative goal. But inequality taken to extremes can overwhelm conservative ideals of self-reliance, limited government and national unity. It can delegitimize commerce and business and invite destructive protectionism and overregulation. Inequality, in short, is a conservative issue too. We must develop a positive agenda that integrates the right kind of egalitarianism with our conservative principles of liberty. If we neglect this task and this opportunity, we won’t lose just the northern Virginia suburbs. We will lose America.

There you go. A former Bush speechwriter's p.o.v. Your turn.

Quote-O'-The-Moment: Drip, drip, drip... gush edition

By GottaLaff

The Republican criticism doesn't stop:

"It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance."

-- Former Bush speechwriter David Frum